Esteghlal TEH vs Malavan by Sors

The hosts started the new campaign with a 2-1 win in the visit to Siah Jamegan in the first round, which was fully expected, given the potential of Esteghlal Tehran and its ambitions for the upcoming season.

The club signed with some experienced local players during the break like Mehdi Rahmati (gk), Meysam Majidi (def.), Amin Hajmohammadi (midf.) and Jaber Ansari (midf.), as well as with two foreign players like Rivaldo Barbosa (midf.) from Figueirense and Pero Pejic (forw.), who was top scorer of the Albanian league last season.

Parviz Maloumi, who is one of the most experienced managers in this league, begins his second spell at Azadi Stadium (he won Hazfi Cup with Esteghlal in 2012).

Like Esteghlal, Malavan also started the new campaign with a win: 1-0 at home against Zob Ahan last Friday.

However, there is one thing that must be taken into account here: Malavan is a team with limited resources, whose main aim is to finish the campaign in the middle of the standings in this league.

This will be the first home game for Esteghlal Tehran this season, the hosts will have a full squad for this match and I think that they will manage to win three points today.